Flesh and Steel
by StephenMcTowelie
Summary: Sequel/Companion story to Walker Zero. While the Doctor and Rick attempt to stop the outbreak from occurring Rose and the Alexandrites find themselves facing new and more sinister threats. Rated T for violence and language. Chapter 3 complete.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter I

Rose, Glenn and Maggie ran back to Alexandria while the confusion and the walkers had Negan and his goons distracted. They would routinely stop, hide and check their surroundings to make sure they weren't being followed before they proceeded onward. They also took a circuitous path, taking care to cover their tracks once they had gotten further away. In doing so it took several hours longer than it should have before they were back at the gates of Alexandria. Carol and Sasha hurried to open the gates and let them in. "What happened? What took you so long? Where's Rick and that doctor?" Sasha's questions came too fast; none of the returning party had even had a chance to catch their breath yet. "Daryl? Is he behind you?" asked Carol. "We were ambushed by some men. The Doctor and Rick got away in the TARDIS." answered Rose, being the first one to spare the air to form words. "These guys have some serious hardware on them, heavy equipment and military grade shit. We muddled our path to shake them from following us back here." Glenn explained. "We still need to prepare in case they come looking for us." Maggie added. "Daryl? What about Daryl?" Carol repeated the question forcefully as the gate doors were locked behind all of them. Glenn straightened up and took a deep breath. The look on his face was enough to tell Carol all she needed to know. She turned and walked away without saying anything. Glenn exhaled, saving his words that need not be spoken. Carol went into an empty house and slammed the door behind her. Sasha grabbed Glenn's arm and turned him towards her. "We, we couldn't do anything. . . " he confessed woefully. "It'll be all right. That's the world we live in now, and so it goes, and so it goes." she told Glenn, trying to appear strong but the sorrow came through in her voice as well. "The son of a bitch with a baseball bat is their leader, if I see him again I'm gonna kill him." Maggie declared, turning her grief into anger. "Sasha, I need you to warn the others and get this place ready to repel a full scale attack, by the living." Maggie ordered Sasha. Sasha scrunched her face as she tried to get into a focused state of mind and stood there for a little while. "Sasha?" Maggie repeated herself. "I'm going, I'm going." Sasha said then turned and walked away. "I'm going with her." Rose said and followed off behind Sasha to sound the alarm. Rose trusted in the Doctor that he would restore the timeline and these people's sorrow would be erased, though she was still shaken up. Maggie and Glenn then hugged each other, effectively restraining their tears and appearing stronger than they were. Daryl had been there with them since almost the beginning, and now they had lost him. Maggie was right though, that son of a bitch with the bat was going to pay.

Late that night in the forest where the TARDIS had once stood there remained a multitude of slain walkers and a handful of Negan's minions lying permanently dead among the bodies. Daryl's corpse rested in a seated position next to the tree where he had his head bashed in. The manner in which he passed prevented him from resuscitating as the undead. One death would be enough for him, he would rot in peace. The abandoned tow truck remained jacked up against the fallen tree with a big damp puddle beneath it where some of its fluids had leaked out. There were no living men around this place anymore, only a small number of walkers lumbering about aimlessly. With little to draw their attention they were slow, almost inactive at this point, that is until a series of flashes illuminated the night next to where the TARDIS had once stood. Five Cybermen had materialized and now stood amongst the walkers. The light had at first attracted the walkers but once the cybermen had manifested in their midst the walkers were disinterested. Their metal shells concealed their organic components from detection by the undead. The metal men were of little more interest than a car or a garbage can to the walkers. "Tachyon signatures indicate recent temporal flux in this region. The Doctor was here." the lead Cyberman stated in its stoic computerized voice. The speech drew a few walkers to crowd around the cybermen. "Analysis of lifeforms. Human. Degraded physical and neural capacities." a second cyberman reported. "Are they upgradeable?" inquired the lead Cyberman. The second cyberman paused while it processed the data it retrieved through a series of algorithms. "Yes." the second cyberman confirmed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II:

In the dark hours before the dawn the Cybermen approached the Sanctuary, Negan's compound, which was a manufacturing plant surrounded by a medieval looking palisade of impaled walkers beyond the facility's fence. "A facility suitable for upgrade conversion lies ahead." one Cyberman reported to its apparent commander. "Proceed." the lead cyberman replied. The cybermen continued on towards the Sanctuary, the loud clanging of their mechanical march and the light emitted from their wrist mounted searchlights drew in a great host of walkers behind them.

One of Negan's lieutenants rushed into his room, pushing aside his guards and telling them it was an emergency before waking Negan himself. "What the fuck is it Connor?" asked Negan, rolling over from his bed. "We've got company coming in from the east." Connor reported. Negan angrily got up, got dressed and went over to an upstairs window on the east side of the building. He looked out from his vantage point and saw five searchlight beams shining out beyond the fence. The sounds of the cybermen in motion grew louder and joined in with a symphony of walkers snarling as they drew closer to the Sanctuary gates. "These motherfuckers are coming at us with flashlights, banging pots and pans around like two skeletons fucking in a trash can; holy shit they've got to be stupid." Negan declared. "Might as well show them we don't take kindly to unannounced guests." he continued, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. Negan summoned twenty-something men to the east gate and armed up before taking position. The mechanized footfalls rhythmically continued like the beating of metallic drums, growing stronger and stronger as the Saviors waited to spring an ambush on what they thought was an unlucky caravan of human survivors.

What they saw however shocked them and living in a world where the dead came back to devour the living, it took a lot to shock people these days. Silver men with blank emotionless stares carved into their faces marched in lockstep with a veritable army of walkers at their back, leading them straight into the Sanctuary like the Pied Piper. One of the Saviors jumped the gun and opened fire upon the walkers, thereby spoiling the ambush. "God damn it asshole!" Negan cursed. "Everyone open fire then!" he commanded. The entire crew along the east perimeter let loose a massive barrage mowing down or crippling untold numbers of walkers. The cybermen, made of metal and unappealing to walkers walked straight through the row of impaled walkers and towards the fence line. The bullets which so easily tore through the soft, rotting flesh of the walkers harmlessly pinged off the hardened metal shell of the cybermen. "Hostile action detected. Delete." the lead cyberman stated. The lead cyberman raised his arm in which cylindrical metal cannon emerged from and fired an energy beam through the chain link fence and into one of the hiding positions of Negan's men.

"Bullets won't harm them!" shouted one of Negan's fighters. "No shit!" replied Negan. "Carson, try that over there!" Negan ordered one of his inner circle pointing to an RPG launcher in the back of one of the military vehicles they had liberated from the area around DC. Carson ran towards the vehicle receiving cover fire against the walkers now breaking in through torn sections of the fence which the cybermen either shot or pushed their way through. "Delete. Delete." the cybermens' computerized voices repeated as they fired upon Negan's henchmen. Carson managed to reach the RPG launcher after clubbing a walker to its second death along the way. He stood up, took aim at one of the cybermen that had gone through an open spot in the fence and launched an RPG which impacted dead center on the cyberman's chest. The resultant detonation blasted it into five pieces. The still intact head of the cyberman landed on the ground near a fence post where another cyberman was leading a trail of walkers. "Delete. Delete. G.g.g.g.g..." the severed head stated. The cyberman fired upon Carson, who rain at the sight of its arm raised. The beam missed him and hit the military vehicle instead, melting a hole through it. Seeing the situation was hopeless Negan hopped down from his perch and ordered a general retreat. His fighters, wives and concubines loaded into vehicles and drove off, fighting off the endless tide of walkers pouring into the Sanctuary. Several of their number were lost and were torn asunder by the ravenous undead or vaporized by cyber-weaponry. As he himself fought his way through the thick of things to get to the vehicle Carson and Connor had ready for him Negan took the arm of the destroyed cyberman and used it to bash a few walkers' skulls in with until he jimmied with it enough to learn how to fire it. Once he figured that out he doled out a parting shot with the cyborgs' own weapon against them. The beam from the cyber cannon pierced a cyberman's armor and sparked up its internals, shorting it out and causing it to fall to the ground inert and non-functioning. This discovery came too late as the sheer number of walkers the cybermen had drummed up was too much for the Saviors to handle. Negan was forced to finish the retreat.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and with the cyberman's hand in one hand and Lucille in the other he bashed and smashed his way alongside several expendable fighters to get to his ride. He drove off leaving those who fought with him to fend for themselves, many of which succumbed to the walkers before they could escape on foot. As Negan's convoy drove away from their abandoned stronghold his thoughts were on two things; vengeance and a new home. Vengeance would come on his terms when he and the peculiar metal strangers met the next time. As for a new home, Negan thought back to the group that had chanced upon them in the woods, the one who stole the odd blue box from him. They must have had a place in a secure location; they seemed far too well kept to be a band of wild rovers running about in the woods. Surely that box also had something to do with the cyborgs, after all both were undoubtedly weird, which was all the Casus Belli that Negan needed to justify taking their home from them. The Saviors would run until dawn, rest and regroup and then they would march upon Alexandria and take what belongs to them by right of conquest.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III:

Rose got up early to help boil water for the community. After a couple days there was still no sign of the Doctor and this got her worried. After all he had a time machine; there was no need to make her wait. He could have simply rematerialized shortly after he left regardless of how long he had spent away fixing this whole zombie problem. When he did fix the zombie problem what would happen then? Rose wondered if she and everything around her would change in an instant and she would have no memory of Alexandria and the walkers. Or could it be that when the Doctor corrected the past that this universe she was in would branch off and become a parallel reality apart from her own universe. That could explain what was taking so long; the Doctor could be having difficulty getting back to her because of the difficulties transdimensional travel posed, even on the TARDIS with all its fantastical capabilities. She knew the Doctor though, and that no matter how long it takes, whatever it required the Doctor would find a way. Rose only had to survive until he got here. Then would come the awkward moment in which she had to tell these people that life wasn't going to change for them, that they were doomed to live out their short and miserable lives on this horrifying continuum that never was. She hoped that wasn't the case, that time would simply rewrite itself. She also hoped the worst of all possibilities had not come to pass, that something awful hadn't happened to the Doctor. This was something she might be able to rule out, at least in part, right now. Rose ran up to Carol, Abraham and Sasha who were on their way out to make a supply run. They were running low on antibiotics and flu season was just around the corner.

"Excuse me, Miss Carol is it?" Rose greeted her.

"Just Carol is fine." Carol replied.

"Carol then, I was wondering if while you were out if you could go check on the place where the Doctor and Rick had left to see if maybe they had come back already and you know, the zombies got them?" Rose asked.

"She means the walkers. I know the place, shouldn't be too much of a bother." Abraham said to Carol.

"Don't you worry little lady, we'll check it out." Abraham told Rose.

As promised after the supply run the three of them: Abraham, Sasha and Carol returned to the clearing in the woods where the TARDIS had once stood. It was empty now, no TARDIS, no Doctor, and no Rick. The bodies of the walkers on the ground were those slain during the previous venture here that had now been thoroughly consumed by the ravenous hordes of undead wandering these parts. The tow truck Negan had attempted to steal the TARDIS with remained wrecked, jacked up by a fallen tree. Carol then turned to a different tree and what she saw made her throw up. It was Daryl's jacket and his pants with naught but a mushed up mess of bones and decomposing flesh contained within. His head had been bashed in so he had never become a walker, for whatever consolation that was Negan's method of execution spared him that unkindness. It was no consolation to Carol however who stared in horror upon the remains which had been thoroughly gnawed upon like a Thanksgiving turkey picked clean by feral dogs. Carol's new tough image immediately melted away to nothing and she became as if she was the battered housewife again. She started bawling at the sight and wretched again before turning to Abraham and burying her face in his chest.

"There, there. I liked the guy too." Abraham consoled her.

"Sasha, I reckon we can't move him far in the condition he's in. Want to go grab some shovels so we can give this fine gentleman a proper burial?" Abraham turned to Sasha and suggested.

"Yeah. It's the least we can do." Sasha said in somber, reverent tone.

Carol continued to cry her eyes out and Abraham continued to awkwardly console her before they thought to head on home and swap medicine for shovels. As they left they did not realize that from high up in the trees someone else was watching them.

When the gate opened Rose ran to meet Carol and the others.

"We didn't find him out there. Looks like your Doctor never came back." Abraham told her before she could even ask the question.

Rose noticed Carol's face and eyes were red. Sasha too looked a little long-faced herself.

"What happened out there? Is something wrong?" Rose asked.

"She saw her would be boyfriend out there. Poor guy got munched up pretty good by the walkers. We're going back out to give him a proper send off." Abraham explained.

"Can I come too? I didn't really know him but from what I heard he sacrificed himself so that the Doctor could save us. I owe it to him to pay my respects as well." Rose asked.

"I don't see why not. Grab yourself a shovel and we'll get moving once we drop this stuff off." Abraham replied.

"Bring me one too. Bring all of us one while you're at it." Carol called out to Rose as she walked briskly away.

After Rose ran off to collect shovels for them Abraham turned to Carol. "I sure hope this Doctor of hers can really save the day." he confided in her.

It was no secret, that was what they all wanted. They didn't say it out loud because the sound of it sounded crazy but deep down they all wanted the time traveler claims to be right. They yearned for a day to wake up to a world without walkers. Patience and disbelief kept them from putting too much stock in the Doctor however. While it was a distant hope that burned within them the real world demanded that they make their own real world solutions to their problems.

When the three of them returned to the forest glen with a trio shovels in hand they started to dig Daryl a grave. Rose, Abraham and Carol dug while Sasha remained on the lookout for walkers. However it wasn't walkers they had to be worried about. After they had laid Daryl's body in the freshly dug grave but before they could begin filling it in two smoke grenades were lobbed from the trees above them. A thick cloud of tear gas obscured their vision and burned their eyes. Meanwhile they heard rustling in the trees and footsteps fast approaching. As they coughed and gagged they turned about to look for whoever was attacking them. A second barrage hit them from above, this time of glass cylinders shattering onto the ground and upon Sasha's back. The vaporizing liquid within the cylinders, most likely chloroform or something similar began to dull their senses and make the four survivors woozy. Abraham was the first to be rendered unconscious, assisted by a swift blow to the back of the head by a shovel wielded by an unseen assailant. Soon after Sasha succumbed to the sleep induced by the liquid staining her clothes. Rose and Carol followed suit shortly thereafter. Rose was the only one to catch a glimpse of their attackers. The person whom she saw she could not recognize, if only Abraham had seen him he would have been able to identify and rightly fear those who had subdued them.

Rose woke up inside a wood shed on an abandoned ranch somewhere presumably not too far from Alexandria. Alongside her Abraham, Sasha and Carol were still unconscious but propped up against the back wall of the shed. They each had their hands bound by twine behind their back and tied up with a thicker rope to a cross member of the shed wall behind them. This rope is what kept them propped up and prevented them from slumping over into a pile on the ground. To either side were piles of dry firewood and coils of rope. On the far side of the shed next to the door was a single bit axe, a garden hoe and pair of hedge trimmers. Opposite that, parked between a stack of wood and a few barrels of rain water was a John Deere riding mower. Light peeked in through all the cracks and openings between the rough planks that comprised the walls and room of the shed.

"Hey, big guy. Wake up!" Rose whispered to Abraham.

"Carol. Get up!" she whispered to Carol.

Rose wiggled side to side as the rope allowed her to and bumped into Abraham on her right and Carol on her left.

"Urrrruuuuugh!" Abraham groaned.

He groggily opened his eyes, not fully aware of the world around him.

"What did I eat?" Abraham muttered.

The noise attracted attention. Peering in at them through a round hole in the door one of their captors noticed that they were waking up.

"Hey! Connor! Better let the boss know that his trophies just came to!" the guard called out to someone outside.

"Get up! Get up!" Rose called out loudly.

"They're coming! Get up!" Rose shouted as she violently shook the shed wall behind her.

"What? What? What are you talking about?" Abraham replied.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed as he realized what had happened.

"Sasha! Get up!" Abraham yelled over at her, leaning forward unconsciously draped from the wall to his right.

Abraham began to saw the rope behind him in a serpentine pattern that dwarfed Rose's efforts to break free and rouse her comrades. Abraham managed to snap the reach cross member they were bound to, splitting it near Rose and allowing her to break her bonds. The shaking eventually brought Carol and Sasha to their senses just before their captors announced their arrival. Abraham, still bound at the wrist managed to become unmoored to the wall; the sound of which was muzzled be slamming of the shed door as it was flung open.

"Wakey Wakey motherfuckers!" Negan shouted derisively at his four prisoners as he barged in with two other men.

Negan brandished his arms to the side showing the four captives his weaponry. In his right hand was the same barbed wire wrapped baseball bat that had crushed Daryl's skull to a pulp. In his left he had fashioned a gauntlet from a severed Cyberman's arm complete with cyber-cannon and all that he wore as his proverbial iron fist.

"It looks like you cocksuckers decided to go back to the scene of the crime. Ya'll are a bunch of fucking stupid fucktards if you ask me?" Negan mocked his prey.

"What the hell do you want asshole?" Abraham asked.

"Now is that any way to address your new master. I don't think so." Negan said, slapping Abraham with the back side of his cyber gauntlet. The cold steel stung from the blow that cut two deep gashes in Abraham's cheek.

"Now it appears you motherfuckers have stolen something from me. Does a big blue box out in the woods, ring any bells?" Negan asked.

"Go to hell!" Sasha snapped back.

"Wrong answer bitch!" Negan riposted and slapped her firmly leaving her with a bloody lip.

"Now not only have you little dickweeds not paid your share in taxes, you've gone off and stolen my property, cost me a perfectly good tow truck not to mention a few of my dear troopers out there. The guns and shovels we took from you don't even begin to cover your debt." Negan told them.

"Now I'm perfectly willing to let bygones be bygones if ya'll would kindly tell us where the fuck you've staying at. Don't try to tell me you've been out on the road because I know that's a crock of shit. You ladies hair is much too pretty to be out there in the funk of it all and big ginger over there looks like he gets more than a full three squares a day." Negan said to them.

"Oh yeah, this one is mighty pretty over here. Oh darling you sure do have a pretty mouth, such pretty eyes too." One of Negan's goons said to Rose as he ran with filthy hands through Rose's hair, down her nose and over her lips.

"Get the fuck away from her." Negan snarled at his minion.

"The bitches are all mine unless you get out there and earn them. On second thought, that one, nah, I'm keeping her all to my motherfucking self!" Negan said.

"I might as well just keep them all." Negan announced.

"Except that one over there. Too old." Negan continued, pointing his left arm at Carol.

Without hesitation for even a second Negan fired a bluish-white energy bolt at Carol which completely incinerated her leaving only a pile of ash where she had once stood.

"Now that wasn't any fun, too god damned clean! Where's the fucking sport in that?" Negan pretended to be upset over how easy it was for him to kill Carol.

He then brandished his bat and smacked it gently into his metal hand.

"My dear Lucille has herself a boyfriend now." Negan declared.

"Lucille, meet Ricky." Negan said introducing his bat to the gauntlet on his left forearm.

"Now I'm afraid I don't have enough food to feed the big red Sasquatch here so I'll have to put you down." Negan stated as he raised Lucille up in preparation to strike.

Before he could bring the bat down Abraham charged Negan and head-butted him in the stomach. Seeing the opportunity before her Rose bolted for the door as well. The perverse minion of Negan's gave her chase and tackled her down to the ground.

"Don't you dare fuck up her face Armstrong or I'll have you burned alive!" Negan warned his minion after he kicked Abraham off of him with the assistance of his second minion.

Abraham slammed back against the far wall of the shed, shaking the entire structure and sending a rain of dust trickling down like snow to the ground. Negan lunged at Abraham and swung with a vicious sideswipe as his minion held the burly Sergeant down. Abraham's strength proved too great and he was able to move Negan's henchman into Lucille's path forcing Negan's strike to rip the face clean off his own servant. Abraham pushed the screaming, bleeding, skull faced body of Negan's goon onto Negan; knocking them both back while he turned to Sasha and began to work on her bonds. Meanwhile Rose kicked and squirmed to get out of the grasp of Negan's other henchman until she got up against the door within reach of the outdoor tools laid beside it. Rose snatched up the hedge trimmers and drove them straight into the top of the skull of the man pinning her down. The kill was quick and she hurriedly got up and grabbed the axe to strike Negan but was knocked aside by a misplaced cyber cannon blast that blew a hole in the front of the shed.

"Go! Get the fuck out of here!" Abraham yelled at Rose before he charged back at Negan having only partially broken Sasha's bonds, leaving the last of it for her to saw away at.

Rose took the axe and ran out the door.

"Stop!" the guard outside shouted.

"Forget her! Get your fucking ass in here!" Negan demanded.

Abraham punched Negan in the jaw and Negan clubbed Abraham in the right hip, bringing him down almost to one knee.

"That's it! Bow before my balls bitch!" Negan taunted him.

Negan violently swung downward but missed Abraham's skull when Abraham leaned to the side and broke the cardinal rule of male on male combat. Abraham reached upwards and grabbed Negan's testicles and squeezed with all his strength.

"What were you saying about your balls bitch?" Abraham snarled back as Negan, overcome by excruciating pain was brought to his knees.

As Negan winced in pain while Abraham's grip intensified the guard from outside came running in and shot Abraham in the chest with a crossbow bolt, piercing through to his heart. Abraham's strength began to leave him and Negan was able to fight off the grip Abraham had on his family jewels before staggering backwards onto the ground by the door. Sasha charged towards Negan but the guard immediately pointed the crossbow in her direction to make her reconsider her choice of action.

"That's far enough missy." the guard snapped.

"Thanks Dwight. Ugh!" Negan groaned. The pain was still too much for him to endure.

"Connor! Get over here!" Dwight leaned outside and called for help.

Meanwhile Abraham yanked the arrow out of his chest and fell over as the blood oozed out of the wound, pooling up in his chest and unable to reach his brain. Connor and another man hurried to the shed and helped Negan back onto his feet. Negan hobbled to the door, clutching his groin with his cyber hand.

"Well Dwight, looks like someone's getting laid tonight." Negan congratulated him as they both watched the life slip away from Abraham.

"Seal it up and let this bitch deal with her soon to be walker buddy." Negan instructed his minions as he exited the shed. Dwight kept his crossbow trained on Sasha as Negan and the others withdrew to the ranch house thirty yards away. When Abraham's corpse began to his and snarl upon his reanimation Dwight backed out of the shed, shut the door then locked and boarded it up behind him. He then ran into the house where Negan was getting an ice pack from the generator powered freezer they had in the house.

"What do we do if the bitch survives?" Connor asked.

"Follow her back to her people. She's bound to lead us straight to them, unless she's dumb enough to come at us head on; in that case kill her." Negan ordered.

"What about the blonde?" Dwight asked.

"That prissy bitch won't last five minutes out there with the walkers. She's as good as dead to us." Negan responded.

"A shame though; she sure would have made a great lay." Negan remarked, sharing a laugh with his minions.

Two for two, today was an even exchange for the Saviors. They took back only what was taken from them today. If Sasha died that would count as interest. They still had a large debt to settle with Alexandria but it was nothing for Negan and his horde to lose sleep over. They would soon enough be paid in full.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV

Sasha fervently moved her wrists up and down sawing away at her bonds while Abraham's walker picked itself up and stared at her with his pale glazed over, rolled back eyes. Before there would be emotion in those eyes, a sort of kindness, a reflection of a gentle heart behind Abraham's strong and crass exterior. There were real thoughts and passions behind those eyes. Now those eyes were empty, reflecting a hollow soulless beast bound by pure instinct. The man she knew was gone; she knew full well how to let go. Just as she did with Bob before him Sasha would have to put Abraham down. It was not her own feelings that held her back, only these confounded fraying ropes. The fibers continued to split and Abraham continued to stagger towards her, intensifying the horror Sasha felt welling deep within her chest. Abraham as a mortal man would have already closed the distance on her by now; thank God for slow, lumbering walkers. Sasha wondered if the undead Abraham would have still retained all the strength that the man had when he was living. If that was the case he could surely overpower her easily. Negan had bashed him up pretty good so she hoped that it had some effect on his brute power. Even if he wasn't the hulking muscleman anymore the sheer weight of Abraham's animated corpse would pin her down rendering her unable to move. She had to escape before he reached her so that her speed and intelligence would put the ball in her court. Abraham was two steps away when the last strand of Sasha's bonds was broken. She lunged to the side and fell forward on her face just in time to evade walker Abraham throwing himself against the back wall of the barn. Sasha crawled away and brought herself to her feet while the zombified Abraham turned around and chased after the sound of her movements. Sasha grabbed the only thing within reach, a leaf rake and swatted at Abraham's head with it. The first few strikes were brushed off by the monster she had once known, hardly even slowing it down. The follow up blow snapped the rake below the head and still did not halt Abraham's advance. Thinking quick Sasha turned the broken rake handle into a spear and jabbed it through Abraham's cold, lifeless left eye. She felt the stick pierce through the eye socket and into the soft infected brain matter behind it. Abraham continued to move towards her driving the makeshift spear deeper into his own skull. At that point Sasha twisted the pole and broke it off in Abraham's skull. She sidestepped out of walker Abraham's path and allowed him to fall forward onto the ground where she had once stood. Abraham, now dead for a second time stopped moving and Sasha was left alone in the barn.

Rose ran through the forest not looking back. The snarls and growls of passing walkers only amplified the adrenaline rush coursing through her veins driving her to run faster. She tripped over a gnarled exposed tree root and fell into a pile of dried leaves and grass. Rose heard the growling, hissing, groaning of the walkers getting closer as she tried to pull herself back up onto her feet. The leaves rustling underneath her as she got onto her hands and knees attracted the walkers to her. Fear slowed her movements, made her clumsier; drawing out the time it took her to regain sure footing. She saw one coming towards her, an adult male, badly decomposed with discolored flesh beneath skin that had mostly peeled away from several long summers and moist winters. The undead creature's right forearm even bared an exposed bone. Rose was disgusted at the creature almost as much as she was scared of it. The smell was beyond repulsive making Rose want to throw up the meager breakfast Glenn had cooked for her and Maggie this morning. She hadn't had to deal with walkers alone before. Since she had come to this horrid version of her future she always had others to look out for her. This time Rose knew she would have to kill it if she wanted to survive. Luckily that would not be difficult. The moral dilemma was lessened by the fact the walker was so disfigured and decayed that it was hard to feel sympathy for what it might have been in a previous life. Whatever it, or he was had rotten away and left this thing behind; it barely even looked like a man anymore. Rose had no weapon however, nothing to combat the walker with but her bare hands. She had foolishly dropped the axe during her flight, thinking that its weight was slowing her down too much but not thinking of its value to save her own skin. She backed up away from the walker as it lumbered towards her, eventually running into a tree. Backed against the tree she felt around for small branches and found none. Behind her the gasping and raspy groaning of more walkers accompanied the sounds of stirrings in the underbrush. Rose managed to peel a large piece of bark off with her nails as the male walker advance on her, getting hung up in the same root she did. She exhaled sharply in relief, almost laughing at the irony of the situation. The branch that brought her into this situation had also saved her. The walker tugged at its right foot snugly wedged into the root and reached out towards Rose, as if she was just going to walk into its arms and let it eat her brains out. "You zombies really have to try harder on your pickup lines. We're not stupid." she thought to herself. She looked at the piece of bark in her hands. It was somewhat sharp on one side. Would it pierce a man's skull? Probably not but it could tear through some soft exposed flesh of a rotting corpse she thought. Though it was tempting she thought it best not to test it out on the snagged zombie in front of her and instead cautiously walked away. Two more walkers, both female, with tattered clothing and white, wiry hair stumbled through the underbrush towards the trapped walker at first and then towards Rose. Rose ran away through the woods looking for anything she could find to fight if she had to. She found a fallen bough of a tree that looked as if it would make a solid club but when she picked it up she discovered the wood had rotted so badly that it fell apart in her hands.

"Oh drat." Rose muttered to herself as unseen walkers could be heard closing in on her from all around.

Then she heard something different, something she did not expect. It was the sound of metal drumming and pounding in a cyclic rhythm like the pistons on a press in a factory. The noise was that of dozens, maybe hundreds of moving parts operating in perfect synchronization like a mechanized marching band. The sound drew away the walkers from Rose who followed it like rats being led away by the Pied Piper. As whatever was making the sound drew closer it started to sound. . .familiar. Rose had heard this exact rhythm before, and not long ago at that.

"Come with me. You will be upgraded." Rose heard a synthetic voice speak to an unidentified walker snarling and snapping off beyond the hodge podge of trees obscuring her view.

Rose knew that voice. "Cybermen." Rose said aloud only to cover her mouth not to draw attention unto herself.

They had followed her here but how? Probably the same way she and the Doctor ended up on this accursed Earth. She moved herself carefully around the closest tree to her and hid on the side furthest away from the sound of the Cybermen's steps. She tried to silence her breathing and remained perfectly still hoping the Cybermen would pass her by. Rose flinched as walkers moved through the bushes around her. Fortunately they did not see her or care to see her. Whatever the Cybermen were using to attract them was somehow more attractive to the dead than she was. In time the robotic death march moved away leading an assembled horde of walkers trailing them. For the moment the woods looked clear, but how long would that last and how far and in what direction was Alexandria from this place? Rose's situation had gone from bad to worse. A new enemy had revealed itself in these woods. Not only was there the dead to worry about, and a psychotic band of the living but now there were Cybermen after her. The odds had been shifted even further against her survival, as if the world was not already dangerous enough.


End file.
